


Missteps

by mikkimouse



Category: Tiger & Bunny
Genre: Comfortween 2020, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Grief/Mourning, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-28
Updated: 2020-10-28
Packaged: 2021-03-09 06:01:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27239959
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mikkimouse/pseuds/mikkimouse
Summary: In which Kotetsu is having a bad day and Barnaby attempts to help.
Relationships: Barnaby "Bunny" Brooks Jr./Kaburagi T. Kotetsu
Comments: 12
Kudos: 74





	Missteps

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the [Comfortween](https://hurtcomfortex.dreamwidth.org/22946.html) day 3 prompt "Not Just a River in Egypt," because if there's anybody who would deny anything was wrong with him despite all evidence to the contrary, it's Kotetsu.

Barnaby stood outside Kotetsu's apartment with a bag of takeout in one hand and his other raised to knock. He hesitated. 

Generally, it seemed when a friend was having a bad day, you brought them food or drinks and asked them what was wrong and let them talk about it. Barnaby was the first to admit that he had not had any experience in this particular area; he was going entirely off what he'd seen in movies and what Kotetsu had done for him in the past. 

But Kotetsu wasn't only a friend. He was a friend, and Barnaby's partner, and the most important person in Barnaby's life. It would be all too easy to misstep here. 

Kotetsu wouldn't worry about making a misstep. Kotetsu would just barge in with food and then badger Barnaby until he ate something, pester him until Barnaby told him what was wrong, and then he'd figure out a way to fix it. 

Barnaby was not sure he could do the same in return, but he could try. At the very least, he could make sure Kotetsu had something to eat.

He took a deep breath and knocked on the door.

Kotetsu answered more slowly than he usually did, and his eyes went wide as soon as he opened the door. "Bunny?" 

"May I come in?" Barnaby asked. 

Kotetsu rubbed the back of his neck. "Eh, I..." 

Barnaby held up the bag, his bribe. "I brought dinner." 

Kotetsu hesitated, but he stepped aside and opened the door wider. 

Barnaby walked in. The apartment was dark; the only light came from the streetlights outside. Three bottles and a can of beer were on the coffee table, and all of them were open. 

He set the bag of food beside the bottles and turned back to Kotetsu. "What's wrong?" 

Kotetsu smiled at him, but it didn't come close to reaching his eyes. "Nothing's wrong, Bunny-chan. Why would you think that?" 

Barnaby gave the beers on the table a significant look. "You've been acting strangely all day, and you skipped out on meeting Antonio for drinks to drink alone in the dark, apparently." 

Kotetsu blinked. "How'd you know about that?" 

Barnaby clenched his fist. "Because he called me when you didn't show up and didn't answer your own phone."

"That guy," Kotetsu muttered. "He should know." 

Barnaby frowned. "Should know what?" 

Kotetsu waved it off. "Eh, it's nothing. What'd you bring for dinner?" 

"Burgers," Barnaby said. "Why are you lying to me?" 

Kotetsu startled at that. "What?! I'm not—" 

"You _are_." Barnaby gestured at the bottles on the table. "I know you well enough to know that, at least. I know you don't tell me things because you don't want me to worry about you, but—" 

_But I_ am _worried about you, regardless._

He couldn't quite manage to say those words aloud. "You don't have to tell me what's wrong," Barnaby finally said. "But I hate that you lie and say there's nothing when there's clearly _something_." 

Kotetsu said nothing, only stared at him for the longest time. 

Barnaby couldn't take it anymore. "Fine, then. I'll leave you to it." 

He started for the door. 

"It's been eight years," Kotetsu said softly. 

Barnaby stopped at the non sequitur, the words "eight years since what" on his lips. But he turned and saw Kotetsu looking not at him, but at his left hand, twisting the silver wedding band he still wore there. 

_Oh._

"The first few years were harder," Kotetsu continued. "The last couple haven't been so bad. But today, it just...hit me." 

"I'm sorry," Barnaby said, pathetic as the words were. There were never any good words for times like this.

Kotetsu shrugged and didn't say anything else. 

Barnaby thought he should do more, but Kotetsu obviously didn't want to talk about it and Barnaby wasn't even sure if he wanted company. He cleared his throat. "There's cheeseburgers and fries in the bag. I asked for extra mayonnaise. I have my phone if you need me." 

Kotetsu looked back to him. "You're not staying?"

"Do you want me to?" Barnaby asked. 

Kotetsu's smile got a little closer to his eyes this time. "Eh, you came all this way."

It wasn't really a _yes_ , exactly, but it was close enough. 

Barnaby walked around to the coffee table and started unpacking the food. "I'll stay, but you had better find something other than beer to drink, old man." 

Kotetsu sputtered, but he picked up the beer bottles and headed to the kitchen. "I have plenty to drink!" 

"You didn't the last time I checked," Barnaby said, solely to hear the offended grumble Kotetsu responded with.

He set the burgers on the coffee table and waited until Kotetsu had returned with water and plates before he got the fries out.

"Did you get pickles on yours?" Kotetsu asked before he'd even sat down. 

Barnaby rolled his eyes. "I don't like pickles and you know that." 

"They're good for you!" Kotetsu jabbed a finger at him. "You need the vinegar—" 

"I need the vinegar about as much as you need an entire cup of mayonnaise on your fries," Barnaby said mildly. 

"Ha!" Kotetsu threw up an arm triumphantly. "So you _agree_ you need it."

Barnaby sat on the couch and unwrapped his own burger. "My point was that you don't _need_ the mayonnaise on your fries. You _like_ it, but you don't need it."

"I do need it." Kotetsu squeezed two mayonnaise packets over his fries, as if to prove his point. "They don't taste as good without it. And you need to eat your pickles." 

Barnaby took a bite of his own plain fries. "I think I'll survive without them." 

It was easy to keep up with their familiar bickering, and the sadness on Kotetsu's face gradually leached away. By the time they were halfway through dinner and he got the bright idea to put on an old Legend movie, he was almost back to his usual self. 

Barnaby hid a smile behind the remaining half of his burger. It seemed this had not been a misstep, after all.

**Author's Note:**

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> [Twitter](https://twitter.com/mad_madam_m)  
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